Alexa Cast

Soon Alexa Will Whisper In Your Ear

Today we hear about some improvements coming to Alex, and we play with a new skill called Mylestone

Alexa to Sound More Human

News out of Amazon this week announced that Alexa will be able to whisper, pause, and sound more human. Here are some of the things she will be able to do

Whispers – Convey a softer dialog
Expletive beeps – Bleep out words
Sub – Use the <sub> tag when you want Alexa to say something other than what’s written.
Emphasis – Add <emphasis> to change the rate and volume at which Alexa speaks.
Prosody – Use this tage to control the volume, pitch, and rate of speech.

No Ads on Alexa Platform

Amazon Bands Ads from Alexa platform except for music and radio and flash briefings. See more

Alex Developers Get More Information About their Customers

Amazon this morning rolled out new tools for developers of Alexa apps, aka “Skills,” which aim to give them more insight into their app’s users, as well as allow them to build location-based skills. The first is a new metrics dashboard – similar to those used by developers of mobile applications but designed for these voice apps – which lets Alexa developers track things like unique customers, sessions, utterances (spoken words) and intents.

The other is a device address API which allows developers to request specific location data from their customers, including street address, city, state, zip, and country.

This means developers will be able to find answers to basic questions about their app – like how many customers do they have if more people are adding the skill and using it, what time of day the skill is more heavily used, and more.

Add Memories to your Video and Photos With Mylestone

Remember your favorite memories?

Whatever the cherished memory, you probably took a lot of photos, trying to capture the magic of the moment. And when you look back at those photos, you hope to relive the swell of emotions from that moment all over again.

That’s where the Mylestone Memories skill comes in. Mylestoneis a company that transforms memories into unique, audible stories. And its skill for Alexa helps customers relive their most precious moments at any time, right on their device with Alexa.

Upload a few pictures, a video, a favorite song, or even a newspaper clipping, and Mylestone will weave them into a narrative. To start their journey down memory lane, customers simply say, “Alexa, ask Mylestone Memories to tell me a story.” And Alexa will tell them a story that carries them back in time.

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Dave Jackson is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com